CAN'T BUY ME LOVE
Do you ever feel like love doesn't really happen? That there is no such thing? Do you ever feel like people are getting together because they are lonley, or because they are bored? Or that somebody likes somebody just because they "need" somebody to call when they see something funny or somebody to dance with at their friends' weddings? I have felt that way before. I have found myself looking at seemingly happy couples and saying to myself..."well they aren't really happy..."
This past weekend I hopped in the truck and drove to my beloved hometown, Huntsville, Alabama to witness the wedding of one of my best friends from life Christopher James Brown. It was an all-star wedding weekend, packed with a lifetime of memories, imbiberish foolishness, and sincere compassion between great friends, but tonight's topic is love, true romantic love.
There is a moment I really like in every wedding, a moment that in and of itself is worth the price of the ticket. As boring and as dry as weddings can be there is one moment that is so exciting to me that it can make any wedding great. Let me set the stage... in your typical wedding you go throught the whole song and dance of seating the guest and the grandparents to start, then you usally have a chime and perhaps some music. Next it is time for the groomsmen to walk out which is usually pretty entertaining in and of itself. If you notice at most wedding when the bridesmaids come out they walk alone all the way down the aisle for the whole crowd to see, basking in the all of their glory and dreaming of the day when the trade in the pink dress with lace on the fringe for a new dress THE dress, the white dress with the long train. And even if it is their first time to be a bridesmaid they walk as if they had walked that aisle every day since the third grade. But... On the other end of the spectrum when the groomsmen walk out they usually walk very quickly, all-together, and they start in the front of the church. And instead of the confident look given by their counterpart bridesmaids they either have a look of terror, boredom, or a "post final prank" grin, that to the mother of the bride is the scariest look of all. Well Chris's wedding was no exception all of my boyhood friends and I, now in men's bodies but stuck in the seventh grade, all walked out in toe, with the groom our buddy, that we can't believe is really getting married, Chris. Then came the maids, just as I described, walking with as much pride as a west point grad with as much comfort as a man walking onto his porch to pick up his Sunday paper. And then the moment comes. The music slows and crescendos, the crowd stands and turns, the door open revealing the star of the show and hundreds of eyes are glued to the beautiful bride...except two. Mine. This is my favorite moment in the wedding, one of my favorite moments in all of life. And it is not to look at the bride, she is going to be beautiful, she is going to be happy, she is going to be stunning, keep in mind she has taken that walk in her mind four thousand times. But when the doors open at the back of the church my eyes go staight to the groom. Yes the groom, because I am convinced that that moment on the grooms face if you look really hard you can actually see love. It is then that you that you can know if a man is really in love or if he was just bored so he decided to get married. Well yesterday I was priviledged to have a front row view of true love. When they opened those doors I looked at a face that I have been looking at since it was seven years old and it appeared differnetly to me yesterday than it ever has before. It was overcome with an excitement, that I know it has never known. It was an expression Chris's face had never made as he looked at his bride with complete love. And it is that face that I can think of when I start to doubt that people fall in love because I know that they do, I have seen it with my own two eyes.
Good luck Chris and Amanda I wish you two nothing but the best as you share eachother's love.